1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an educational apparatus and, more particularly, is directed to an educational apparatus of the language laboratory type having a master console which is associated with a plurality of student terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With known educational apparatus of the above type, a teacher must spend much time during a lesson in the operation of the apparatus, making it difficult to provide any effective communication between the teacher and the students. This is especially the case in known apparatus of the language laboratory type which requires continual observation of a master control console by the teacher during the entire lesson. This is due to the fact that, during the lesson, the teacher monitors the exercises of the students, and answers questions from and advises the students.
In known language laboratory apparatus, a sequential scanning means is typically provided which is capable of automatically carrying out sequential monitoring of the students, and which scans all student terminals sequentially in the forward or reverse directions. Such systems usually also enable manual scanning of particular terminals through an added control circuit.
Although the aforesaid educational apparatus enables automatic sequential monitoring, there are certain disadvantages associated therewith. For example, the master console typically includes an indication device, such as a lamp, which is adapted to blink on and off in response to the depression of a control button at any one of the student terminals for informing the teacher that a student has a question about the lesson. However, since only one lamp is typically provided, the teacher does not known which student is calling and consequently, must spend much time and effort determining this before responding to the call. Alternatively, some master consoles are provided with a plurality of lamps, each associated with a respective student terminal. In this case, however, the teacher must continually monitor the lamps, making it difficult to provide any effective supervision over the lesson.
Further, it is generally desirable for the teacher to observe the students during the lesson, while also monitoring their responses. Since the teacher cannot watch the call lamps while walking among the students, it is necessary for an operator to remain at the master console to call the teacher back when there is a call from a student. In addition, a monitoring jack may be provided at each student terminal so that the teacher can plug in a headphone set thereat while walking among the students in order to monitor the responses of the students. This system, however, has serious drawbacks in that it is difficult to proceed with the lesson because the students are aware of the monitoring by the teacher.